Just when you think it’s safe to read your news feed on Facebook…they have changed it again. But it has strange similarities to the original news feed of long, long ago.
Basically, they have done away with the Most Recent tab and have combined those updates with the Top Stories. But, so we don’t miss anything while we are away from our beloved Facebook, the Top Stories are being highlighted that Facebook believes might be important to us. These appear at the top of your page and are marked with a Blue corner in the upper left.
The criteria for pulling Top Stories is based on the relationship you have to the person, how many people are commenting on the post, how many “likes” it received and what kind of story it is. If you find stories that you really don’t care to read as Top Stories, you can hover over the right side of the post and click the down arrow to remove it from your Top Stories.
So basically you might see Recent Stories, then Top Stories and more Recent Stories while viewing your News Feed. But when you log in after being away for a while, the Top Stories should pop to the top of the News Feed.
Also, you can once again view updates based on your Friends List. To do this, from your Home page, click “More” on the left side bar at LISTS, and select which friends list you would like to view.
I’m happy about the news feed changes, because it makes it easier to keep up with those friends and pages that are most important to me and my business.
What about you? Do you like the changes?
It always seems like people have more to complain than praise when they are faced with change. In two days no one will care about this. The changes aren’t bad at all. I’m starting to really like the new list feature that is borrowed from Google +
I think it’s important for a platform to continue changing and growing. Facebook is good at listening to their users’ feedback and needs.
- @nanceEss
Thanks Nancy for your positive thinking! I agree. We either learn to like it and move on or grumble and complain and refuse to use one of the best online communication tools we have.
If we never have change we will never get to experience new and exciting things!
Thanks for commenting, I appreciate you stopping by.
Terri
Thanks for the post, Terri. It’s always a challenge to keep up with Facebook changes. And I guess tomorrow (F8 conference) should bring some big ones, if rumours prove real.
I’m not so sure I like living my Facebook life on autopilot. While I understand the convenience of FB making these choices for you (in terms of what to put in your newsfeed) part of the fun of following people is discovering things you didn’t anticipate.
If we only see are regular friend’s updates, then we miss out on serendipity.
This is one of the reasons I like Google+. I enjoy “stumbling upon” items that I wouldn’t normally see,
You’re welcome Ray. And I do agree with your comment about the random posts of the frequent friends that really can be the most interesting. I guess that’s where lists will come in handy. If you know someone posts updates that you enjoy, you could add them to a list called, Updates I Like then just switch to that list to keep up with them.
Thanks for commenting, I appreciate it!
Terri